{"id":2636,"date":"2020-01-18T23:03:20","date_gmt":"2020-01-18T23:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journal.electric-rocket.com\/?p=2636"},"modified":"2025-04-19T19:55:45","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T19:55:45","slug":"book-log-2019-the-year-in-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journal.electric-rocket.com\/?p=2636","title":{"rendered":"Book Log 2019: The Year in Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Books read in 2004: 21<\/a>
\nBooks read in 2005: 28<\/a>
\nBooks read in 2006: 40<\/a>
\nBooks read in 2007: 30<\/a>
\nBooks read in 2008: 41<\/a>
\nBooks read in 2009: 22<\/a>
\nBooks read in 2010: 44<\/a>
\nBooks read in 2011: 28<\/a>
\nBooks read in 2012: 31<\/a>
\nBooks read in 2013: 8<\/a>
\nBooks read in 2014: 13<\/a>
\nBooks read in 2015: 18<\/a>
\nBooks read in 2016: 52<\/a>
\nBooks read in 2017: ~24<\/a>
\nBooks read in 2018: ~28<\/a>
\nBooks read in 2019: ~24<\/p>\n

Last year was my 15th year of logging books. Should have commemorated that, I guess. Perhaps a small party? No speeches. No long ones, anyway. Perhaps just a few words about the importance of reading. I mean, I guess I think it’s important. But I’ve also read (ha!) that learning to read causes you to repurpose the part of your brain that recognizes faces. And quite honestly, I could use some better facial recognition skills. It gets embarrassing.<\/p>\n

It’s obvious I’m not tracking my reading like I used to. You can tell by the little approximation squiggles before the numbers above. It is because in 2016 I attempted the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge, and I just got burned out for three years<\/em>?? Possible. That was a hell of a marathon, reading-wise. <\/p>\n

I only have one non-digital book on the lineup this year. That is probably because I used my Amazon account to figure out what I read. If I bought something at my favorite bookstore, Little Shop of Stories, and read it– it’s lost to history. <\/p>\n

A lotta series books this year. It’s just… easier. Finished one book? Well, here’s another just like it. Rinse, repeat. They weren’t great<\/em> series, just fine.<\/p>\n

Really, nothing on this list blew me away. Fall, or Dodge in Hell<\/em> was probably my favorite, but I’m a Stephenson-o-phile, and I felt like this book redeemed the previous book with the same characters, REAMDE<\/em>. Not that the stories had anything to do with each other, beyond using the same characters. Sortof. Anyway, I liked it.<\/p>\n

I’m reading a couple of great book now, here in 2020. So the future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades. Especially because of the harsh glare of my phone screen.<\/p>\n

1. Down and Out in The Magic Kingdom<\/strong> by Cory Doctorow [borrowed]
\nI’d never read a Cory Doctorow, so I need to see what all the jokes in XKCD were about.<\/p>\n

2. Out of Spite, Out of Mind (Magic 2.0 Book 5)<\/strong> by Scott Meyer [Kindle, $4.99]
\nI like his universe he’s created, but I would really like him to get around to digging deeper into the obvious mysteries. I’m not sure he wants to. <\/p>\n

3. The Weight of Ink<\/strong> by Rachel Kadish [Kindle, $10.99]
\nGood stuff with interplay between the past and the present. Not my usual, but nice.<\/p>\n

4. Replay<\/strong> by Ken Grimwood [Amazon, $13.95]
\nRecommended by my boss, this is the first of two “people who live their lives over and over again” books I read this year. Both great, with very different takes on the same premise.<\/p>\n

5. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August<\/strong> by Claire North [Kindle, $9.99]
\nThe second of the “people who live their lives over and over again” books of 2019. This was my favorite of the two, probably because it was written recently and the other is like 30 years old. <\/p>\n

6. Math with Bad Drawings: Illuminating the Ideas that Shape our Reality<\/strong> by Ben Orlin [Kindle, $14.99] – unfinished?
\nInteresting, but perhaps shouldn’t have been an e-reader. May need to try to finish it in paper form.<\/p>\n

7. Annabel Scheme<\/strong> by Robin Sloan [Kindle, $2.99]
\nI don’t remember this onen at all. I know Robin Sloan wrote a couple other entertaining books, one about sourdough.<\/p>\n

8. The Quantum Magician (The Quantum Evolution Book 1)<\/strong> by Derek Kunsken [Kindle, $1.99]
\nOdd little sci-fi novel with some interesting world building. <\/p>\n

9. Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind<\/strong> by Yuval Noah Harari [Kindle, $14.99] – unfinished
\nFascinating, except I stopped reading it. A friend also stopped reading it at the same point, and it was because the author made a weak argument about something, and I sort of lost faith. My friend had the same reaction. But I’ll eventually get back to it.<\/p>\n

10. David Mogo Godhunter<\/strong>, by Suyi Davies Okungbowa [Kindle, $5.99]
\nOkay. A little claustrophic. I just don’t know Africa very well, and it was hard to get a feel for where I was. And a lot of mysticism, so the I couldn’t assess the stakes, couldn’t understand the dangers our hero was facing.<\/p>\n

11. Fall, or Dodge in Hell: A Novel<\/strong>, by Neal Stephenson [Kindle, $16.99]
\nMy fav of the year.<\/p>\n

12. Beneath the Sugar Sky<\/strong> [Wayward Children Book 3] by Seanan McGuire [Kindle, $2.99]
\nMeh. Magical orphans from other universes.<\/p>\n

13. Atmosphaera Incognita <\/strong>by Neal Stephenson [Kindle, $2.99]
\nFine little short story by the master.<\/p>\n

The Murderbot Diaries<\/strong>, by Martha Wells<\/p>\n